I’ll be Spurred on to glory
TROPHY TIME: Eric Dier thinks Spurs can finally grab some glory ERIC DIER believes he is closer to winning trophies with Tottenham than he is with England.
And the reason for that is time, with the Spurs project under Mauricio Pochettino more advanced than it is at England with his other manager – Gareth Southgate.
Dier, 24, was part of the England squad which reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in the summer and was a proud captain of the Three Lions when they beat Switzerland 1-0 on Tuesday.
But the midfielder said: “I feel at Tottenham we are further along than we are with England.
“We’ve been together now for four years at Tottenham whereas with England we’ve just finished our second year with Gareth Southgate, so I think we are a bit behind in that sense.
“But in both situations we have to keep pushing, working hard, trying to improve and in both cases we know we can still improve.
“From a mental standpoint we need to be stronger and constantly want more.
“That last step from the semi-finals to the next stage is the hardest bit.
“That’s what we are striving to do. We are in a very good place in all areas.
It’s just a question of making those final few steps and I feel we are getting closer and closer.
“We can’t settle for this now – we have to keep pushing. Now is the time to do it – believe in ourselves. We shouldn’t slow down or be demoralised because this is time to really push on.”
That includes the Champions League, with Tottenham playing at Inter Milan on Tuesday in their opening group match.
The Inter side includes Croatia winger Ivan Perisic (below) who was so instrumental in England’s World Cup defeat in the semi-final. But Dier said: “Perisic won’t be in my mind at all when we play Inter. It’s a different competition – club not country. He’s a fantastic player but Croatia had a lot of those. “What I do feel is that we can cope in the San Siro. We coped in the Bernabeu last season against Real Madrid. And we coped at Juventus and before that at Dortmund, so we believe that and we have shown that.”
Dier, meanwhile, admits England now have to handle greater expectations after their progress in Russia this summer.
He said: “We were so close at the World Cup but at the end it wasn’t to be. We know there are areas where we still need to improve if we want to make that final step.
“But as we had a very positive World Cup, it is only normal for the expectations to rise, so we are going to have to handle that. “Against Switzerland this week, there wasn’t extra pressure to win to return to winning ways because there is always pressure to win every game. “That match was no different. There is always pressure from the outside and we put pressure on ourselves.”